Morning Star Staff
The Kelowna Fripp Warehousing Rockets stopped the Vernon Home Building Centre Vipers 5-2 Sunday to claim the Okanagan Mainline Midget Tier 1 hockey title.
The Rockets, who won the series 2-1, advance to the provincials, March 15-19, in North Vancouver as defending champions.
Captain Brandon Barnes and Steven Fiust each each had a goal and an assist for Kelowna, while Jeran Knorr, Clay Stephens and Ty Cridland rounded out the scoring.
It was a virtual replay of Game 1 as Kelowna’s power play was the difference scoring three times, while their penalty killers were stellar on a long Vernon 5-on-3 in the second period with the Rockets leading 2-0.
The Rockets upped their lead to 4-0 heading into the third, but the Vipers scored twice within the first 1:40 of the third with Cole Woodliffe and Mitchell Lukacs converting.
Jagger Williamson set up Woodliffe, while d-man Layne Greene and Williamson drew assists on Lukac’s snipe. The Vipers pressed the entire period. Cridland added an empty-netter with 27 seconds left.
“I thought we played a great series against Kelowna, but if you give an elite team that many opportunities on special teams they will make you pay for it,” said Vernon head coach Rob Spraggs.
“They scored six of their nine goals (the 10th was into an empty net) on the power play and we couldn’t come back from that. The final game really showed the character of this team. Down 4-0 after the second period, rather than goon it up and make the game into a spectacle, they responded with class.”
Spraggs was assisted by Scott Flood and the Snakes were 6-9 in the regular season. Kelowna was 14-1-1.
Added Spraggs: “At least we showed that a team from Vernon can be successful against Kelowna and Kamloops at the Midget level. I hope that trend continues in the future.
In Female Bantam A playoff action, the Kamloops Mystix held off the Vernon Sladen Moore Lakers 6-4 Saturday at Civic Arena to claim the Valley crown.
The Lakers, who lost the series 2-0, took the lead early with a pair of hard-working goals from Makenna Hoffman.
Samantha Head (1+1) then clicked on a break-away with a nice top-shelfer.
Kamloops came back and made it 3-2 going into the third period, but Mairyn Tucker was sent in on a breakaway from a chip off the boards and equalized.
The Mystix were relentless on their forecheck and recorded three unanswered goals and kept pressing until the buzzer.
AP goalie Danielle Strymecki (Kelowna) was incredible in net for the Lakers, who gave up an empty-netter.
Kamloops advances to the provincials, March 16-21, in Fort St. John.
Meanwhile, the H&L Glass Vipers bowed 2-1 to the South Okanagan Coyotes 2-1 in Sunday’s Valley Atom C final in Penticton.
Jaret Cooper was locked in from the get-go, making a pair of jaw-dropping saves with pad and glove in the first.
Quinn Soon nearly broke the ice with a high-speed end-to-end rush. Early in the second, Liam Leibel came close with a wraparound attempt.
With five minutes to go in the middle frame, Chris Bond stole the puck inside the Coyote line. Jordyn Morris veered to the net and knocked home Bond’s rebound. Two quick penalties left Vernon two short for 46 seconds, but John Spraggs disrupted the Coyote power play at every turn.
Midway through the third, South Okanagan tied it up on another man advantage and got the winner at 18:35.
The Snakes punched their ticket to the finals with a 2-2 tie against Kamloops. Emma Elders and Liam Remple, in the final minute, had Vernon snipes.
Earlier, the Vipers shaded North Okanagan Knights 4-3 with goals from Cash Anderson, Braden Schmiegelt, Maddex Minard and Bond (winner). Teja Sheldrake made three big late stops on a Knights’ powerplay.
End of the year awards went to Brock Holliday (Most Improved, Elders (Most Sportsmanlike) and Soon (MVP). Brent Bond was head coach.
